MSM: Still Can't Get It Right

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Josh Trevino is guest blogging at Townhall, and has two posts up today that point to clear examples of how the MSM [mainstream media] is once again dropping the ball in their reporting of the Ethiopian/Somali war raging on in the African Horn. Trevino says:

[...] journalism fails where journalists fear to tread, and so we are reduced to reading propaganda releases from the opposing sides[...]

Thus media from Islamist-controlled Mogadishu cites as its only two sources the Islamists — and the International Committee of the Red Cross. And so we see in the Washington Post unsourced passages telling us: “Aid workers said … thousands of civilians battered by drought, floods and now by rockets and mortars continued to flee villages in droves.” Worse: “United Nations officials warned of a dire humanitarian crisis inside Somalia, while fears remained high that Ethiopia’s campaign could have disastrous consequences across the Horn of Africa.”

This is absurd on several levels, beginning with the implicit contention that Somali suffering is only now beginning, and that the conquering advance of the Islamists there did not itself bring some measure of woe.

[...] As if on cue, erstwhile UN functionary Salim Lone arises in the pages of the International Herald Tribune to blame the whole mess on America — and to declare that the cure for Somalia’s woes was the salutary embrace of a vicious Islam.

He goes on to explain how the press are failing to comprehend the worldwide fight against Islamofascism, which includes Somalia in a huge way. Thus, the Ethiopian attack is a “profoundly significant story”. What’s the press doing? “Handwringing”, and trying to get someone to step in and NEGOTIATE. Once again, the press and the lefties aren’t getting the memo that Ethiopia is doing just fine (read: kicking ass), and didn’t ask them for their two bit advice.

In the second post up today by Trevino, he articulates the motivations behind the lefty press, and specifically Matthew Yglesias:

As I have explained, this invasion began half a year ago, and is only now entering its latest phase, as the Ethiopians transitioned several days ago from a static defense of Baidoa to an active campaign of conquest. But because this transition has taken the pundit class by surprise — they don’t pay much attention, it seems, to things that are not shiny and loud — one gets a lot of comment that is the distilled essence of glib ignorance.

[...] it’s not about Islamism, less about patriotism, and still less about America: it’s about the relentless advancement of his political party — the opposition to which is, it seems, inseparable from the whole of his nation abroad.

He goes on to list several sources around the globe that are taking part in this lazy, partisan reporting. He also points out that one of the only accurate MSM reports comes from (brace yourself) The New York Times, who said:

The [Somali] Islamists came to power earlier this year as a grassroots movement that drove out Mogadishu’s warlords and restored a semblance of order to a city that was once one of the most violent on the planet. But the goodwill they earned is being sapped away by their decision to attack the transitional government and declare a holy war against Christian-led Ethiopia. That provoked a crushing counterattack by the Ethiopians, who have the strongest military in East Africa and have sided with the transitional government because Ethiopia views the Islamists as a threat to its own security.

Go read both posts, because you will be hard pressed to find much out there about this war that isn’t tainted. First post here, second post here.